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Monthly Archives: June 2013

From extreme weather to cuts and bruises, summertime brings a whole hoard of potential emergency situations. We’ve rounded up five of the top first aid apps you should have on hand. In case anything turns south, you’re better off safe than sorry.

Did we miss any good first aid apps? Let us know what first aid apps you rely on.

The recently redesigned Pocket First Aid and CPR app now reflects the updated American Heart Association’s guidelines on CPR and emergency cardiovascular care. It has clear and concise instructions for adult, child and infant CPR, as well as 34 videos and 46 high-resolution illustrations.

With this app, one man even survived for more than 60 hours under a pile of rubble during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Its newly added search functionality is nifty, too. It’s available for iOS andAndroid, each for $1.99.

Red Cross’ First Aid app is a great tool to have at the ready. It includes safety tips for everything from volcanoes to meningitis, as well as the standard directions for heart attacks, burns, cuts and more. Preloaded content means you don’t need Wi-Fi to access the app — a necessity during emergencies. It features a clean, red and white Pinterest-like scroll design. Tap on your unique emergency situation to get step-by-step instructions. It’s fully integrated with 911 so you’re just one button away from getting help, and all content is ad-free. It’s available for free oniOS and Android.

Double Dog Studios brings the Army’s first aid manual to life with over 600 pages of content. You’ll find basic first aid information — including bleeding, breathing, fractures, heat and cold injuries — as well as instructions for rescue carries and transportation. There are categories for dangerous and poisonous animals and plants to help you survive, lest you be caught in the wilderness unprepared. It’s available for $1.99 on iOS.

Drops First Aid by Dynamisk Helse sports a clean interface that divides information into three sections. Summaries provide short, easy-to-understand instructions for when you have to take immediate action. Videos give you clear visuals, and full instruction gives you a detailed text and image rundown of how to respond to each situation. There’s also an option for more advanced life-saving techniques if you’ve already mastered CPR training. It’s available for $1.99 on iOS.

GotoAID is a member of the Health and Safety Institute, and the app has been reviewed by physicians and veterinarians. Pet lovers will like that while about half of the first aid topics are for people, the other half applies to dogs and cats. The premium version includes more than 400 first aid topics and sound clips, along with video instructions, distress signal information and a search function to guide you to the nearest medical facility. The lite version contains considerably less — only a little more than 40 first aid categories — but is helpful if you want GotoAid for freerather than $4.99 on the iOS. It’s available for Android with the same deal — premium for $4.99and lite for free.

A trailer for 300: Rise of an Empire, the follow-up to 2006 action film 300, surfaced online Wednesday. Similar to its predecessor, Rise of an Empire is filmed in a graphic-novel style, and depicts mortal-turned-god Xerxes in his bid to overtake more territory.

A two-and-a-half minute trailer, above, reveals intense battle scenes between Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro reprising his role in 300) and woman-warrior Artemisia (Eva Green of Casino Royalefame) against Greek general Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton). The film is based on Frank Miller’s latest graphic novel, Xerxes.

Directed by Noam Murro, 300: Rise of an Empire is slated to hit theaters on March 7, 2014.